This is Halloween

On Halloween, I got the most random surprise: a job offer!

The timing could not have been any better.  I had been applying to several schools and heard nothing (other than that Farm phone interview).  I was getting desperate.  Not that I want to go back to work outside the home, but it's starting to get a little tight with just one income.

So there I was, sitting in the car, having just pulled into the Target parking lot.  I opened my email and saw a former colleague's name, with the subject line "Random Question."  Oh geez, I thought, she must be tasked with coordinating one of the events I handled at my last job.  Imagine my surprise when after a brief, nice greeting (even spelling little AC's name correctly!), she basically said that she knew it was a long shot since we hadn't been in contact in almost two years, but her office at NYU was looking for someone to work from home part time, with a sense of humor and with basically grace under pressure!

After learning more about the job (and that the office is a peer institute to the one I worked for last), I expressed my interest in becoming a candidate.  Two weeks later, I was heading to NYC on a business-class express train, with the ACs on a different, non-express train (since obviously they only paid for me). It was the most bizarre experience ever: my former colleague had basically decided I was The One and had already started marketing me to the staff as her mini-me!  When I arrived, she ushered me back onto the elevator to go meet the director (who's on medical leave) at a nearby coffeehouse, where he simply asked what it was like assisting the former director of national intelligence and how I planned to work with a toddler in the house.  This took all of 15-20 minutes.  Next we had lunch at a funky, clubby Thai place with his chief-of-staff, which consisted of lots of laughter and descriptions of other staff.  Not being able to find the next person I was to chat with, we headed back out to another coffeehouse.  Finally, a quick chat with someone from the Afghanistan regional project, as I might be helping them coordinate conferences and events, and I was done.

Since I'll be hired as a research assistant (otherwise the school makes me join a union), the paperwork and bureaucracy has pushed my start date to December 16 instead of December 1.  I'll be basically helping book travel for the director, who has a heavy travel schedule, and other appointments as needed.  Then, sometime in late January/early February, I'll head back to  the office for a few days to see the action in person.

A little nervous as December 14 marks the two-year anniversary of my last day on The Farm, but excited to start making money and using my brain differently again!

Time

A brief interruption from my tales of the west to bring you a message about a wonderful company.

In late August, we attended the Boston Green Fest.  As the name suggests, the festival had vendors promoting green living.  I was delighted that one of the vendors was Sprout Watches, which I'd learned of from Nordstrom last year.  The exhibitors had brought a nice variety of watches, and the prices were surprisingly reasonable, so big AC bought me a simple, black, organic cotton watch.  To my disappointment, the second loop on the band (the strap keeper, if you will) broke off when we were in Southern California--about a month and a half after I'd gotten it!

I'd been meaning to either glue or sew it back on, until I decided to check with the company on how to do so.  I emailed their customer service department this morning, and AN HOUR AND TEN MINUTES LATER, I'd received a message saying that they were sending me a complimentary replacement strap! The message, from a manager, was so down to earth that I couldn't believe it.  So if you're in the market for a new, eco-friendly watch, or simply want to add to your timekeeper collection, please check them out.  (I'm in love with this model, especially because of the conflict-free diamonds, but the bracelet is too big for my wrist. :( )

How I Spent My (Indian) Summer Vacation, part deux

We arrived late in the afternoon at LAX.  Little AC fell asleep before the plane even took off, which was nice.  But due to a miscommunication (*cough BIGAC cough*) our ride didn't know we were landing around 4:30, so we had time to peruse the Int'l terminal.  After being picked up, we got stuck in LA traffic (of course) but managed to have dinner with friends that I hadn't seen in several years before arriving at our final destination, big AC's sister's house.

In SoCal, we toured by public transportation because big AC was too scared to rent a car for fear of another accident.  Luckily, LA has made great strides in that area.

USC-season-ticket-holding friends gave us their tickets for the game against Arizona; little AC decided she wanted to stay with her cousins so big AC and I had a date of sorts.  We arrived early, and had planned to leave early so we could make it in time to our niece's 3rd birthday party, but due to construction and bad schedules it took us TWO HOURS to get across L.A. via bus...all so big AC could have some free food at the party.  (Taco truck.)

The rest of the trip: we went to the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History...

...Chinatown's Phoenix Bakery, Plaza Olvera, and Little Tokyo (the pics must be on my phone!), where we scored more Hello Kitty stuff and my favorite tea, Genmaicha by Yamamamoto, on sale at Nijiya...

...the Los Angeles Zoo, where my little one finally saw elephants (the zoos out here don't have elephants!)...

(this sure made me wanna buy a Rep-Tile!)

...and ate as much yummy food as we could.  I also had a phone interview with Stanford, which went okay. (Despite the woman telling me that she'd let me know either way where I stood within two weeks, I still haven't heard anything, and the position is still posted on the website.  Also, if you are interviewing someone on speakerphone, you might not want to keep zipping and unzipping your agenda or whatever near the mouthpiece AS IT IS MUCH LOUDER IN THE PERSON'S EAR and quite distracting.)

The biggest highlight of the LA trip was seeing how much little AC enjoyed playing with all her cousins (except the 7-year-old that was annoyed by her, which caused A LOT of friction). Hard to believe he was bummed to see us go (he was asleep when we left for the airport) when just a couple of days prior he asked, "Next time you guys visit, can you just leave her with a babysitter?"

How I Spent My (Indian) Summer Vacation, part 1

It feels like we were gone forever, even though we were only gone for 17 days.

Our first stop was San Francisco, where CBC kindly let us crash for 2 nights.  Our first day there we saw an A's game--little AC's first.

During a trip to Golden Gate Park, little AC got her first skinned knee while walking on a curb looking at pretty flowers with big AC.

We then rented a car so we could head to Vallejo for our next stop.  We'd requested the cheapest car at $9/day, but not only was our reservation pushed back due to lack of cars (drivers were delayed from Monterey), by the time we showed up our only choices were a Mercedes SUV or a Mercedes sedan.  Big AC explained those were way out of our budget.  So the representative actually gave us the sedan for $14/day!  Sweet, right?

While in Vallejo, little AC made 2 new friends, though there were many tears and fights with the youngest one.  :(  We went to the Sanrio outlet (our hostess is a HUGE fan; you've no idea how bummed she is that Sanrio is not really a boy thing, since she has 2 sons).  Later that evening, my friend, Pablo, came over, since it turns out he only lives about 10 minutes from them.

Her first real tea party, with new Vallejo friends.  Needless to say, she now has her own set.

That Sunday we left and headed to the Raider game.  We parked at a BART station (no WAY did we dare drive that car to the Coliseum!!) and tried to find big AC's cousins before the game but were unable to do so.  After the game, we found them, said hi, were kicked out by CHP clearing the lots to avoid mayhem, and headed to BART.  We discovered we'd parked rather close to Jack London Square, so we decided to drive there and find a place to eat.  On our second go-around trying to decide where to park, we got into an accident.  A minivan flew into the intersection and CRUSHED the front end of the car.  Luckily, no one was hurt.  Being the good passenger that I am, what did I do?

I FROZE.

Big AC got on the phone and began calling the rental company's insurance line.  The other driver and one of his two passengers got out and made sure we were okay, and kept apologizing.  They were in their 20s and also dressed in Raider gear.  The only thing I did was get the plates off the minivan and location.  I had the camera in the trunk and did not take any pictures.  WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME???  The driver and passenger were waiting to talk to big AC by leaning on the driver side of the car, when I heard the passenger say, "I'ma say my neck and my back hurt."  Their minivan, a '97 Dodge, had a white scrape across the passenger side, but that seemed to be it.  A few days later we learned, sure enough, that the passenger was filing an injury claim, and a few days after that, the driver claimed his car was no longer drivable.  (They drove away from the scene before we did.)

We turned the car in the next day; luckily, big AC had gotten insurance on it for fear of something like this happening, so we are not responsible for the car damage.

The rest of the trip we stayed in the only available room at a Good Nite Inn in Redwood City, which was a nasty smoking room, and not as close to Caltrain as we'd thought (we relied on public transit for the remainder of our trip).  Thanks to CBC, we went to the Conservatory of Flowers with my mom; saw our friend Mr. Duncan briefly; and had dinner with my dad--who arrived toting a paper Starbucks cup filled with white wine (!!!).  We even managed to have lunch (Japanese food, how I've missed you) with some of Art's former co-workers before heading to SFO.  And at SFO, while waiting for our flight, I received that email from Stanford expressing an interest in my resume....

(to be continued)

All Right Now

We are at Terminal 2, waiting for our Virgin America flight to LAX.  I need some Peet's, so I opened my email to see if there were any deals (BOGO, etc.).  Instead, I found an email that made me RUN to the Arties (who were checking out a bird mural).

The position I applied for at Stanford?  THEY WANT TO SCHEDULE A PHONE INTERVIEW.

I know it doesn't mean I'm getting an offer.  But still.

YIPPPEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stay tuned.

Neighbors Know My Name

As promised, I'll be adding some posts about our neighbors, as we got to know some of them a little better at an early July gathering.  First up is a neighbor who had not moved in as of the gathering, though.

This neighbor lives on one side of us.  Apparently the residents include her mother and son.  The little boy is 6, and played with little AC about a week ago.  He even came over for dinner that night because we knew she wouldn't eat unless he came over to continue playing with her.  He had to leave due to karate class.  The kicker is that big AC kept calling him the wrong name; I'm guessing it's because the boy has the same name as my last fling before big AC.  D'oh!

Rock You Like a Hurricane

I have so many blog posts in my head! I promise I'll update soon. Nothing major; mainly more funny peeks into the lives of neighbors and my mom's visit.

So we are hunkering down for what seems to be our yearly hurricane watch. We are only supposed to get very strong (45-60mph) winds and 3-5" of rain, so we shall see what transpires. But to really rock you, here's an interesting bit:

I applied to a job back on The Farm, and big AC is going to apply to a job in South City.

!!!

I found the job when I was looking in the staff classifieds for housing for our upcoming trip. And big AC saw the posting in South City on a listserv. Lately he's experienced some frustration with the culture and lack of challenges, so that's why he wants to apply. So we shall see! Keep it on the DL, as we don't want to get hopes up, 'k? ;)

Who Are the People in Your Neighborhood?

When we first moved in, almost a year ago, we were the 6th to buy one of the 19 townhomes on this lot.  (Apparently, the original plan called for 200 but then the economy tanked.  So there are some foundations laid nearby with grass growing tall all around in the summer.)  Now, only 3 townhomes remain for sale.  We've formally met only 3 of the newest neighbors:

1.  Juan.  I call him Big Juan out of earshot because, well, he's a very tall man.  He works for the T.  Starting Memorial Day weekend, he threw a BBQ almost every weekend night until mid-June, and the annoying part was on warm nights when I wanted to sleep with the windows open--one of his guests laughed like a hyena.  (Our bedroom window faces the back of the property; 16 of the units' patios face each other.)  But the BBQs have stopped--for now.  However, you know when he's home because he drives onto the property and simply rolls down the window, blasting salsa music, to check his mail.

2.  Carlos.  Big AC said I should have asked if we can just call him 'los. I met him when he came over to look for the building engineer (BE), who was checking a non-functioning outlet on the 3rd floor.  He seemed really nice and is kind of cute, but something seemed...off.  Later the BE told me that Carlos had changed the locks without notifying the management AND was refusing to allow his fire alarms and sprinklers to be tested.  Big AC was approached by a woman who lives with Carlos and was nervously chain smoking.  We're guessing they're crackheads.  One of their bathroom windows has a red light and they have box fans in the windows of the adjacent room.

3.  T and Jeremiah.  I call her T in my head because I just met her but can't remember her name.  She moved in next door.  Jeremiah is her son, who appears to be about 5 or 6.  She's really nice and works at a hospital near Big AC's.  I can hear Jeremiah running through the halls most of the day, though sometimes I forget someone lives next door to us now.

Hopefully management will throw another homeowner appreciation BBQ later in the summer so we can meet everyone.

Look Alive, Sunshine

As I mentioned in the follow-up comment to my last post, there have been new developments.  First of all, my jury summons has been cancelled.  YAY!

Secondly, big AC cannot join me for little AC's last playgroup session due to a mandatory training session at the EXACT. SAME. TIME.  Oh crap.  Fortunately, he's kindly taking the day off for her penultimate playgroup, as well as for her last home session the next day with R, her service coordinator.

In other news, I met another mom willing to hang out with us.  I took little AC to a local toy store, which was supposedly having a craft session for kids to make Mother's Day cards.  (All they did was put out markers, a roll of stickers, and construction paper in the play area, which was fine by me.)  Another mom was in the play area with her little girl, whom I guessed was about 4.  Turns out she will be 3 in late June. I was wearing a Stanford hoodie, and she mentioned she was a Cal alum.  We chatted a little; when she had to go, she offered to give me her number so we could arrange a playdate!  Now I know why I've read that this is as exhilarating as getting a romantic date.  I

Also, after several weeks of phone tag, I finally connected with a woman who organizes playgroups for kids 1-3 years old.  She had an opening for Friday mornings, and mentioned that they give kids from Early Intervention priority.  So I jumped at the chance to start taking little AC today, so that when she finishes her other playgroup it will make the transition a little easier.  It's an interesting group; I'm required to stay with her for the 2 hours, and there are some bilingual portions in Spanish (though the other kids speak Eastern European, Middle Eastern, and Nordic languages!). It's not as structured as the other playgroup, but at least she'll be interacting with other kids and learning to listen and follow directions.  Surprisingly, little AC became very worried whenever I'd leave her field of vision.  We'll see how it goes.

Learn to Fly

The next few weeks will be busy. 

First, I've been called to jury duty on May 9.  (Why me?  If anything it should be big AC--he's the reason we're here!  But I digress.) Part of me hopes that I will be assigned to a case simply so I can chicken out of the big event of that week: Little AC will transition out of Early Intervention when she turns 3.  This means that she will no longer receive every-other-week home visits by R, her service coordinator, nor will she be eligible to attend her twice-weekly playgroups.  The penultimate session of the former occurred today, and I almost choked up towards the end as little AC quietly asked, "R go work? R no go work" as R wrote out her visit notes.

I'm not sure I'll be able to hold it together during her last playgroup on May 12.  Most outgoing students have a little celebration that last day, with cake or cupcakes and a "goodbye" book full of pictures of him/her at playgroup.  Big AC is taking the day off to be there too.  This has been little AC's first real group of friends, and sometimes on non-playgroup days she'll ask for them.  The head teacher and the aides are so fond of her.  During the mid-year evaluation in January, when little AC was assessed to see whether she still qualified for services based on her progress, one of the women confided that she had subbed in her playgroup one day and somehow little AC's name came up and her head teacher had gushed, "Isn't she the cutest?!"

Fortunately, there will be a big distraction from this bittersweet milestone.  My mom is coming to visit again, this time for ONE WHOLE MONTH!  She arrives late in the afternoon of little AC's birthday.  I'm already brainstorming what activities we can pack in during that month, especially since the weather will be SO much better than when she came in November.  For one, we will all be heading to Connecticut and Rhode Island as big AC will be attending lectures in each location on May 20 and 21.  This also means that big AC and I will hopefully get at least one date night while she is here--most likely it will be to watch "Hangover 2."   

Just writing this blog post is making me feel not so weepy.  But stay tuned to see how that transition week turns out.  Will I be called to serve on a case?  Will I frighten the children as I weep on little AC's last day?

In da club

For my second New England birthday, I knew I didn't want to cook dinner, and that a sweet treat was in order. Unfortunately, it was a long day because little AC didn't fall asleep till 2AM that day, and we were expecting someone to fix the cracks in our house but hadn't been given an ETA.  Additionally, it was a playgroup day, which means we had to be ready to leave the house by 10:40. So we planned to pick up big AC from work and simply grab something to eat from Whole Foods, since we needed to pick up some groceries anyway.  (Fortunately, I'd anticipated a busy day, so I baked a batch of large chocolate chip cookies and lace cookies the day before.)

Big AC didn't think dinner from Whole Foods was special enough for a birthday, so we grabbed a small chocolate mousse cake and decided to stop for dinner at a local, casual place we both liked and hadn't been to in a while, assuming we could find parking.  It was my lucky day because we found a spot across the street.

I had pupusas, but they weren't as good as I remembered--my mom later said maybe they didn't use enough cheese.  Big AC ordered a plate called picada, which is basically a platter of small chicken wings, fried shrimp, chopped pieces of pork and beef, crinkled french fries, and tortilla chips.  The last time he ordered this dish, it was huge, so he asked for the small.  And little AC got 3 small steak tacos with rice and beans.

To big AC's surprise, the "small" was HUGE.  And as soon as little AC saw it, she pushed her plate over to me, said "Here you go," and pulled the platter towards her and dug in.

Can you see why their "specials" flyer provided a good giggle?

When we headed home, little AC insisted on holding the cake and then shook it in an effort to open it.  So my pretty cake looked like this:

Nevertheless, it was delicious.  I was surprised it was so filling--I had thought a mousse would be light enough to let us finish it that night.  Little AC preferred the frosting, and when I stepped out of the room, I came back to find she had scraped it off with her finger.  Big AC tried to cover for her, saying he had eaten it, but the little one proudly said, "Mama, I eat the cake with my finger!" Luckily, we'd already eaten most of the cake.

The newspaper placemat makes for an interesting background, but you can see what was left of the cake in its naked, frosting-free form.

[No] Gin and Juice

Lately we've discovered some odd rules in the Commonwealth.  We knew about this rule but had forgotten about it till we arrived at Whole Foods shortly after it opened this morning:

This rule applies to restaurants, too.  It's been a looooong time since I've stumbled into a place for brunch before noon, but anyway, what if I wanted a mimosa???  Personally, I think brunch places--especially those with all-you-can-eat Sunday brunches--would bring in so much more money if the rule were lifted.  There's a local food review team that is actually leading the way to change the rules, but I haven't seen it implemented yet.

Two other rules that left us scratching our heads:

1.  No physical contact between customers and dancers at strip clubs.

2.  Happy hour was banned in Massachusetts in 1984.  However, to get around this, restaurants/bars typically hold all-day deals, instead, during the week, such as "$2 PBR pitchers on Tuesdays".  You can read more here.

Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.

S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W

Our property sits across the street from a rental property by the same name.  At first, we thought it was managed by the same company.

When we moved in, the kids from that property were riding their bikes and running all over this property, because hardly anyone lived here.  I'd have the windows open on a hot day and find a little girl staring through the screen who would then ask if little AC could come out to play.  (We didn't have blinds at the time.)  It was a little annoying to have so many kids running around, but not too bad.

One weekend--as luck would have it, the weekend big AC was on his yearly Vegas trip--things got out of hand.  There were older kids running around, sitting on the back benches smoking out, and yelling obscenities like there was no one around.  What to do?  I was home alone with little AC.  I was furious with big AC for leaving me, and I wasn't sure what could be done.  Finally, I saw one of our neighbors come out his back door barefoot and tell the kids off.  But some of them trickled back to the front of the property, where our house is.  I glared at them through the window, and about 15 minutes later, they started ringing the doorbell and running off until I opened the window and yelled that they'd better cut it out or I'd call the cops.

A few days later, we noticed the kids would fill up bottles of water using the exterior water spigots and have water fights.  The little girl who'd become friendly with us was using ours and we asked her to stop, but the spigots for the empty houses were still being used.  I emailed the management company as an FYI, and I was surprised to hear back that there had been several complaints about these kids who were not supposed to be on the property in the first place.  Additionally, they were sending a memo to the other property's management (!) telling them that their residents were trespassing on private property, and that we should call our security company or Boston PD if we caught anyone trespassing!  That was a big relief.  And it was a bigger relief when 3 kids came running over here as a group of other kids yelled from across the street, "You're not supposed to go over there!"

Now that it is snowing, some of the residents across the street have the nerve of parking in spots that have been shoveled out for our property!  Additionally, since the snow keeps them from parking (illegally--there are 2 "No Parking Any Time" signs along the street) in front of their apartments, they now pull in front of our place and wait for whomever they are picking up.  This was the last straw, so I emailed our management company again (they probably think I'm some Nosy Nellie at this point).  They confirmed that this should not be happening, and that they'll have our building engineer (AKA maintenance man) tell their management company about the problem.  Whew!  In the meantime, I feel like a scarecrow: I try to turn on lights so they know someone is in the house, I make it subtly known that I am looking out the window.  I'm scared that something will happen or that they'll figure out I said something.  In the meantime, since it's only been 2 days since I got that email, I wonder: should I call security?  Or should I wait till that memo goes out to them?

Sigh.

We Are Family

Our first non-immediate family guest is planning a trip to visit us. I should be excited but I am dreading it.

My oldest cousin--she's 55--is planning a trip for October with her mom (my dad's sister) and husband. She didn't really ask; she just started emailing and saying they were hoping to see us in October.

Now she is in full planning mode. We've never been really close; I didn't get to see my cousins on my dad's side very often growing up and he gets irritated with his own family sometimes. However, she's really nice and took the afternoon off to be there when my dad had bypass surgery (or was it stents? It's so hard to keep track).

But I am picturing days of awkward conversation and the task of feeding and entertaining them. (Not to mention all the cleaning beforehand.) My aunt is awesome but really getting crotchety as she enters her late 70s. She had back surgery a few years ago, so I warned my cousin that our house has stairs leading to the bedrooms. As for my cousin and her husband, they are the opposite of AC and me: super-religious and conservative (as in, global warming is a Democrat hoax). We haven't personally discussed the latter with them, but were told by my other cousins (her brother and sisters) about it in disbelief.

I'm hoping they'll stay less than one week. Meanwhile, maybe I should start stocking up on liquor to cope...

NB: friends who follow this blog are ALWAYS welcome. I think it's actually less stress and more fun when friends visit!

Hazy Shade of Winter

Sorry if you started to read this and realized something was weird--I accidentally hit "send" from my phone before I was ready!

Christmas Day was a partly sunny day, which began lazily, had little AC opening gifts around noon, and ended with our dinner at Buca diBeppo in nearby Dedham. There was a decent crowd--not too full but not empty--and the staff was really friendly.  We sat right outside the Pope room, and the funniest thing I heard all night was when the party who had reserved that room arrived:  "What better place for a Jewish family to spend Christmas than in the Pope room!"

I ordered little AC's dinner with the appetizers, but it wasn't served till after our main course! Luckily she nibbled from our appetizers--though my heart broke when she took big AC's calamari and ate a fair amount. The waiter explained they burnt her first pizza so another one was coming. Finally he and the manager apologized and comped our dessert (chocolate chip cannoli, which little AC also enjoyed). Big AC thought the meal was good overall, but I think my taste buds were tainted by the cold I've been fighting since Christmas Eve.

  Le sigh. Wait till she's old enough to know what she's eating...

The chocolate chip cannoli is the creamiest we've tasted thus far here.

As we were getting our coats on to leave the restaurant, the older women at the table next to ours told us that they didn't even realize there was a kid at our table, since little AC was so well behaved!  And once they learned she was 2 and a half, two of them said "Oh! She's big for that age!"  We had averted a couple of potential fussy moments by using food as a distraction (ha ha), especially given the delay in her pizza arriving, so that was nice to hear.

Later Christmas night, big AC told me he had just read the news about a storm heading our way--it was coming at us with at least 12-18" of snow on Sunday!  I was devastated.  It was the last day that parking would be free at Fanueil Hall!  (Normally it's almost $40!!) Not only that, I had been avoiding the Christmas crowds and thus had mentally reserved Sunday not only so we could visit Faneuil Hall but so that I could find a birthday gift for my dad and ship it out Monday.  I hopped online myself and found out not only were we bracing for a big storm, it would turn into a BLIZZARD.  The only glimmers of hope were that 1) it would happen on a Sunday, when big AC is home and 2) though people were being cautioned to get off the streets by 3PM, the blizzard would be at its worst between 11PM and 4AM.

Here's a picture taken before noon of the street in front of our house.

I wish I had a camera when big AC left for work this morning.  He was all bundled up, but since the sidewalk hadn't been shoveled yet, and the snowplows were barely making a dent in the snow, he looked like a big bear, lifting his legs high to get through the snow!  And then a big gust of wind swirled snow around him and another person on the sidewalk.  As much as I hate being stuck inside due to the snow, it's kind of cool to watch. The streets are much quieter than normal, and the blizzard warning is in effect till 6PM tonight.  There's hella flurries falling and swirling in the wind.  We were supposed to return some movies to the library today, but according to the website it's closed because of the storm.  We'll see how much we've been dug out by tomorrow.

Hope you all had a nice Christmas!

Pour Some Sugar On Me

Since I've been a temporary stay-at-home mom, I've had more time to experiment in the kitchen by cooking up healthy meals for the ACs.  I've also had time to indulge my sweet tooth by baking.  (And oh, what a sweet tooth it is.  One day my father-in-law saw how much sugar I added to my coffee and warned me I'd give myself diabetes someday.)  When we used to have organic fruits and veggies delivered back home, I'd make French-style apple tarts almost weekly because of all the apples we received.  The tarts were yummy but could get boring after a while.

Now that little AC is eating almost everything that we do, I've had to monitor the sweets that we have in the house.  Therefore, when baking, I try to keep it simple.  I stumbled upon this recipe for Sweet Beet Cookies, which are delicious. They are ridiculously easy to make, and for me, the most time-consuming part was grating the beets and stopping to measure how much I'd grated so far, which isn't really a big deal. The recipe states that you'll end up with 50 cookies, but for some reason, each of the 3 times I've made them, I haven't made more than 18!  Since I didn't get a lot of dough out of the recipe, I thought it would be fun to use my new gingerbread people cookie cutters.  The color of the cookies against the black skull platter keeps the Halloween spirit alive for me.  :)

Big AC loves these, and can eat most of them in one sitting (and I probably could, too).  Little AC will nibble an arm, and then decide they make nice toys and take them over to her play area to be forgotten.

For Thanksgiving, I had some leftover canned pumpkin, so I made Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies, using dark chocolate chips by accident.  (I thought I grabbed the semi-sweet bag from the pantry.)  I thought they were pretty good, but big AC thought the flavors competed against rather than complemented each other.  However, it should be noted he doesn't really care for dark chocolate.  And little AC preferred to pick the chocolate chips out and leave the pumpkin part of the cookie for Mama or Papa to finish.

Got any easy dessert/baking recipes to share?

 

Mother Mother

I was so excited to pick up  my mom on the night of November 3 to begin two whole weeks with her!

We took her to the Arnold Arboretum and the outlets at Kittery, Maine.  Naturally, she found some great bargains at the latter.  She really enjoyed taking little AC to playgroup with me, especially since she could watch her through the two-way mirror.

Unfortunately, the Sunday after she arrived, my stepdad called to tell her that he wasn't feeling well.  (Many of you know that I really do not care for my stepdad and only tolerate him for my mother's sake. Big AC and 99% of my mom's family feel the same way.)  Then Monday he called to inform her he had been hospitalized and then released later that day.  The next day I overheard her telling big AC that she might ask me to find a flight back before her scheduled departure on the 17th. Thankfully, things seemed to get better, so we kept going, despite the cold rainy weather. I even braved The Christmas Tree Shops with her (it's like Big Lots, from what I understand) and she "only" took 1.5 hours!

Alas, any good time needs to be ruined by my stepdad. (That's why I do not look forward to the Xmas holidays at all.  He ruined so many of them when I was growing up.)   He called her late Thursday night and told her that he tried to go to Safeway but instead got really bummed out and sat on someone's stoop and cried and cried.  And that he felt hot and cold.  Naturally, my mom freaked out and asked me Friday morning to find the first flight back for her.  After a day at Jamaica Pond, feeding ducks and geese, we took her back to Logan Airport, five days before her original scheduled departure date.  (My cousin texted me to assure me she'd picked up my mom at SFO, and that she saw my stepdad--he didn't look good at all, and it may be a prostate issue.)

To console ourselves, we drove from Logan to Quincy, where I'd found a -- gasp! -- Filipino restaurant.  I didn't think there would be much for me to eat, but the pancit, steamed rice, and FAT veggie lumpia (see image below) totally hit the spot.  Who woulda thunk Filipino food would be our comfort food in BOSTON?!

Poor little AC was so confused.  She cried and cried when my mom walked to security, and keeps asking for her.  I am not only sad that she had to leave so soon, I am feeling homesick all over again.  It's cold, already in the 40s, and there isn't much sunshine.  

At this point, I'm considering renaming this blog "Cry Me a (Charles) River."

Express Yourself

Did I mention that little AC has speech delay?

Around the time she turned 2, I noticed that she maybe half a dozen words in her vocabulary.  I mentioned it to her doctor at her check-up, and she referred us to Early Intervention services.  (Early Intervention: sounds like something Lindsey Lohan and Amy Winehouse could have benefited from when they were younger.  But I digress.)  After an assessment, her speech delay was confirmed and it was determined that her speech was at the level of a 16-month old's.  I asked what caused this, and was told that our move probably caused her little brain to focus on new surroundings and push the "need to learn to talk" to the bottom of her priorities.

In late August, a case worker, RY, started coming weekly for an hour to play with little AC and work on speech with her.  Literally, that's how it's done--whatever little AC wants to play with, that's what RY does.  They'll color, or play with her musical instruments, or roll/bounce balls, and RY will repeat one or two words that pertain to their activity: "circle,". "loud/soft," etc. Then, in early September, a spot opened up in the Tuesday/Thursday 1.5 hour playgroup for little AC to further work on her speech (though more so through listening to the other kids or teachers), as well as her social development.  The odd thing is IT IS WORKING.  At first, you wouldn't think that just playing with someone for an hour a week and then hanging out with 8 other (mostly quiet but active) kids and 3 teachers would have an impact.  But she is now putting together 2- and 3-word sentences, and even asking "What's that?"  Her pronunciation isn't perfect yet, but since I spend 24/7 with her, it's easier for me than big AC or RY to figure out what she is trying to say. I don't feel comfortable with her playing with other kids who can really talk, because they wouldn't be able to understand her, but it's progress! RY called it a "word explosion," and that's the best way to describe it.

The downside to the home visits is that I need to make sure the house is somewhat presentable by noon every Wednesday.  Luckily, RY is pretty mellow and little AC really likes her, to the point of asking me almost every day for her.  And the cool part of playgroup is that they have a parent's lounge with two-way mirrors, so I can watch her as she plays or READ or play with my phone for 1.5 uninterrupted hours twice a week! 

She's been mimicking "cool" and "wow"--constant words in my vocabulary--so maybe I'll start throwing out "hella" before she hears "wicked."

Lights

For the past seven days, I have been miserable. Today I realized why.

I. AM. HOMESICK.

I miss my friends. I miss the Bay Area. And I really miss working at Stanford, even though I had outgrown my job there.

*sob* *sob* *sob*

Breaking the Law

I've inadvertently left supermarkets with unpaid items a few times since we've been here. Twice it happened when I had little AC in her "big" stroller, which has a basket under the seat. I like this stroller because it has a tray for her snacks while we shop, and if she falls asleep, it reclines. Additionally--and most importantly--it's the easiest way to carry the items for which I am shopping. But if I take more reusable bags than I need, stuff can hide! Once, I was trying to rush and left a jar of pasta sauce in there! Another time, little AC was in a regular shopping cart, and the cashier was so smitten with her that even though she had all 3 items on the conveyor belt, she only charged me for 2 items! I have felt so guilty when I get home but cannot bring myself to go back.

In a different case, we were breaking the law unknowingly. We were driving along a street in a bad neighborhood and all of a sudden, there were two motorcycle cops standing in the right lane. I thought they were diverting traffic, but one pointed at our car and yelled "Pull over!" I looked at AC and said, "Did I interrupt a funeral procession or something?" (The cops were wearing white straps crisscrossed over their dark uniforms, straps like the kind I used to wear as hall monitor in elementary school.) The cop walked over to us and demanded, "Where's your sticker?" and pointed at the windshield. AC and I looked at each other blankly, before we stammered, "S-sorry officer, we just moved from California--what sticker are you talking about?" He said, "You have them out there too! You know, your inspection sticker." AC said, "Do you mean for smog inspection? We don't have stickers back home, it's just reflected on the registration." The cop looked puzzled at this point, but regained his tough attitude and asked for license and registration. He pointed out on the registration that it said "If this is a newly acquired vehicle, inspection must be performed within 7 days of registration." I said, "Newly acquired--this car was bought in 1999!" He stormed off and came back with the ticket and said, "If you want to appeal it the instructions are on the back." And with that, the ordeal was over. Turns out that "newly acquired" means "newly acquired into Massachusetts." Luckily, the ticket was only $50, and unlike California, you can pay it without fixing the infraction first. So we finally fixed the problem last week...about a month and a half after the ticket was given.

Did I mention the cop was wearing a do-rag? What cop wears a do-rag?!